Podcast Marketing: Hearing is Believing

Turning Your Digital Marketing on its Ear by Integrating SEO into Branded Podcasts

A recent article in Entrepeneur Magazine made a very strong case for why you should use podcasting in your marketing strategy (3 Revenue-Increasing Reasons Why You Should Use a Podcast in Your Content Marketing Strategy). Here’s an excerpt:

We’re living in the digital information age, and it’s a time in which your consumers expect a modern delivery of your content. Consumers experience content from entrepreneurs in many forms, and written content has been the gold standard, but there’s a way to cover all of your bases — podcasting.
Audio content through the use of podcasting is a powerful content marketing strategy that connects business leaders directly to their consumers in a more intimate way. When your consumers hear a “voice,” they feel more deeply connected to your brand. 

Podcast Marketing Strategy

But to be heard, you must first be seen, which is no small challenge considering there are thousands of podcasts competing for attention. The good news is that you don’t have to be Joe Rogan to be successful…you just need to reach – or be found – by a segment of your target market, which brings me to the topic of SEO.

While a growing number of companies are doing “branded podcasts,” their podcasts tend to exist unto themselves, gathered in a separate webpage with brief descriptions of each episode. Applying up-to-date SEO principles and methods can turn a “wasting asset” into a powerful way to reach, engage and, ultimately, influence.

The thing is, podcasts are made for SEO, to the extent that you use them to communicate your expertise, as Google rankings are heavily influenced by the quality of your information – Google’s algorithms know the difference between a webpage or digital asset that’s a thinly veiled advertisement vs. one that’s a resource conveying knowledge/information.  With this in mind, there are concrete ways to use your podcasts to increase organic traffic and improve keyword rankings, including.

How To Optimize Your Podcast SEO:

1. Create a separate page for each podcast  (along with a directory where they can all be easily accessed)
2. Make sure the TITLE and Meta descriptions reflect your targeted keywords.
3. Add at least 300 words of content for each page.
4. Add supporting content to your podcast page, such as: recap, show notes with timestamps, transcript, key takeaways, checklists/worksheets, episode art.
5. Reach out to relevant industry partners for link building (Including guests, hosts, related blogs, podcast channels etc.)

What’s particularly great about a company-branded podcast is that it works to attract ears and eyes on the front end (via the above activities) and rewards visitors/listeners on the back end with a highly engaging, informative, even entertaining piece of content.

Podcasting and SEO are a natural fit – making it work – optimizing the two, if you will – requires production expertise and a deep level of up-to-date knowledge of Google’s ever-changing search algorithms…but the payoff can be huge. 

Podcast Marketing By the Numbers

Podcasts tend to be highly engaging mediums in large part because people tend to listen to them  to keep their minds occupied when they’re commuting, working out, or doing any number of  routine activities. It’s what makes them a powerful medium for companies looking to establish their brands and carve out thought leadership. People tend to tune out ads on websites or blogs, as engaging readers through the written word is harder and requires more experimentation and tweaking. It’s why it’s an increasingly popular and fast-growing medium. Consider:  

• Podcasts’ share of digital audio usage will rise to 40.2% by 2023.
• Listeners tend to be young, affluent, and educated, and generally open to advertising in podcasting. 
• In just two years, US podcast ad spending will have nearly doubled, from $701.0 million in 2019 to $1.33 billion in 2021.
• Because podcast listeners tend to be a highly engaged audience, it makes sense that 69% agreed that podcast ads increase their awareness of products, brands, and services. 
• According to Midroll, 60% of podcast listeners have bought something from a podcast. 

For more on how to implement an effective, high-impact branded podcast, visit https://www.curiouscheck.com/branded-podcast-production-services